In My APPinion: VowelViz by Complete Speech

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Appy Wednesday!! How's your week going? I wanted to introduce you all to a new app by Complete Speech! VowelViz is a speech mapping tool that uses your iPad's microphone to show you real time speech production placement (amazing, right?)

When you open the app, it displays the vowel quadrilateral. When the app detects your voice, it uses an orange ball to show where you are producing the sound. This is a great way to visually show your students how close or how far away they are from correctly producing a target sound.

If you are working on a specific sound, simply touch the sound on the quadrilateral. The sound is then highlighted to show approximately where the sound should be produced. The image below shows my production of the /u/ sound.

Students with Apraxia and phonological disorders immediately came to mind when testing out this app. In addition, I have quite a few students that rely on visual/verbal feedback to correctly produce a target sound. I have always used voice recordings but this app takes the feedback to a whole new level. I love that the student can visually see where they are producing the sound compared to where it should be produced. This app has been very helpful in therapy lately... especially with those students working on vocalic /r/.

If you would like to check out a short instructional video on this app, you can check it out here!

The app currently sells for $29.99. You can download this app in the iTunes store here!